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Old 02-28-2015, 06:57 PM
 
Location: Canada
6,141 posts, read 3,350,727 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Year2525 View Post
Before being allowed to vote? Since the favorite theme of the day are needs tests and qualifications to exercise rights, why not a qualification to vote?
To my knowledge..Only Immigrants who take the oath to become Citizens need to pass some sort of test..American born children to American parents need never to do such a thing...

After reading so much rhetoric about who's and what is constitutional from actual elected politicians..I've come to believe many of them actually do not even understand the Constitution they refer to...So maybe you are onto something Make all elected Politicians actually have to pass a test about Constitutional languages and it's meanings..

Also, even POTUS relies on advice from Constitutional Lawyers for direction..and he himself is a Harvard Grade in that.....So Just maybe..having EVERYBODY who votes pass the test...however, doubt it will help some who get so easily lead by FAUX NEWS and false informations swallowed like "Nectar of the Gods" as gospel truth....
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Old 02-28-2015, 09:13 PM
 
Location: Eastern Shore of Maryland
5,940 posts, read 3,546,496 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Year2525 View Post
Before being allowed to vote? Since the favorite theme of the day are needs tests and qualifications to exercise rights, why not a qualification to vote?
No, Tests should not be required. There would be no reason for anyone that can not vote, to know about the voting system. No more than you would want a test on being a Brain Surgeon, before you signed up for Medical school. If I can't vote, why would I need to know anything about voting, or what the Candidates names, or the elected officials names are, let alone what their platform is. If you can't vote its useless information. When I can vote, then it becomes important because it can make a difference, where it could not before.
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Old 02-28-2015, 09:28 PM
 
Location: Old Bellevue, WA
18,782 posts, read 17,291,001 times
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It is never going to happen so it's a moot question. I posted a 12 question quiz from Pew Research the other day in P&OC, and most people who took the test got at least 10 or eleven right. Many got all 12 correct.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...americans.html

When Pew gave the quiz to a random sample of just over 1000 Americans, the results were poor. The average number of correct answers was 4.2 of 12. Only 24% could identify the current chair of the Federal Reserve.

We had a gov election here that was amazingly close; in the final recount the Dem won by 129 votes. It came out that in my county about 15% of the ballots (over 50,000 IIRC) were 'enhanced,' meaning that they were improperly filled out and had to be examined by hand to see if voter intent could be determined.

I think if you can't fill out a ballot, you should be considered as having failed a knowledge test, and your vote should not count. The ballots are pretty close to the multiple choice tests I took as a kid, starting around 2nd grade or so. I don't remember any kids having trouble filling them out. They might not get the right answer, but they were able to fill in the oval, one per question, and complete the test.
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Old 02-28-2015, 09:57 PM
 
Location: Tucson for awhile longer
8,869 posts, read 16,255,431 times
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No, no more than they should be forced to vote. One of the things I admire most about our government — and fear is in the worst jeopardy in history — is our right to privacy. That means we should only have to participate in government to the degree we want to. (By the same token, we need to protect the voting rights of ALL our citizens who do want to vote!) But privacy also means we shouldn't ever be forced to participate in other things we don't want to be involved in ... politics, religion, someone else's definition of marriage, having or not having children, someone else deciding what goes on with one's body, etc. No government should ever be able to force me to take an ultrasound test, for example. Keep the politics out of my doctor's office. I think I should even have the right to end my life if I so choose.

Now I don't carry that so far as to say we have no responsibilities as residents. We need to pay fair taxes (everyone, not just the poor and middle-class). We need to obey laws. We need to respect the rights of others. No man is an island and all that. I do not have the right to take my freedom to the level it makes my neighbor miserable, to the extent of making his or her life harder in any way. I also don't have the right to complain about the government if I choose not to vote.

But I do think being able to pass a civics exam should be a requirement of graduating from a public school. Public schools are supported by the taxpayers and we have a responsibility to make sure our young citizens understand how government works. Half the people dropping out of participation in public affairs don't even know what they are dropping out of. Don't get me started on the subject of people who say there is no difference between Republicans and Democrats. Anyone who thinks that needs to take courses in civics, economics, and political science.
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Old 02-28-2015, 10:56 PM
 
4,166 posts, read 4,403,883 times
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I mentioned this recently on history forum Q about making amendments to Constitution.
http://www.city-data.com/forum/histo...l#post38501890

There's a couple of ways I have mentioned in past by which the USA should address the broken electoral system.

My assertion is that 1) too much influence is exerted by money interests 2) these same interests count on keeping a large percent of people as easily swayed 'voters' (stupid and distracted) to then create events / marketing (propaganda) campaigns to continue to strengthen their hold over the choke points in the process. I would prefer each election cycle became a renewed civics lesson in the origin of the derivation of our supposed 'representative' government.

Addressing this could occur in a few ways. Amend constitution to reinforce the civics lesson on an annual basis via the voting process by requiring voters to 'qualify'. This can be as simple as having each person pass the same naturalization process for new citizenship. It could be conducted like certain industries which require annual testing to familiarize employees to: ethics / security / competency for public safety issues etc... An example would be a bank employee having to pass an anti money laundering test. An FAA Flight Controller having to pass competency test etc...

The 'qualifying' effort would (hopefully) remind citizens of the sacrifice of those who founded the USA who staked their lives, fortunes and sacred honor (whether you currently agree with some aspects of their 18th century thought). My point being it would raise the national awareness and reengage the populace much like having to take your government / civics course as a primer before each election cycle. No matter how much some may not have enjoyed civics, reminding them of government's proper role would be a very good thing. I think what happens is the impact of historical distance (whether a few generations removed from coming to USA or those too removed from learning it at some level) causes citizens to become immune (desensitized) to the importance and fall into the shearing mode (via mass media).

Another idea is actually 'earning' your right to vote. This could be done respective of peoples belief construct by having every citizen say at age 19 to spend 18-24 months in service to the greater community in one of three areas:
1) Military (a national guard defense oriented function whereby all those are trained to use firearms a la Swiss model)
2) Social (Peace Corp like domestic activities that link youth to helping elderly and requiring interaction which helps foster generational continuity instead of purposeful conflict driven by our consumption based economic model)
3) Technical (this would be another cross generational structured effort pairing up youth with retirees in everything from how to use technology to verify those at the voting booth to community oriented non political party oriented changes to governing, a la, "point click fix" type efforts at local levels to cut through the bureaucracy bloat).

Another change to increase the power of the 'voter' would be enabling the power of not voting via requiring a quorum necessary of the qualified voters to cast votes. The genesis of the idea comes from a Mongol concept in requiring a quorum type element before going to war. It could invert the money interest$ by making a quorum threshold. If it is not reached (a vote of no confidence in the system being 'just') the huge money flows or smear campaigns made on candidates are flushed and all the influencer$ money goes to waste by requiring all candidates being removed for a totally new set of candidates.

My two cents on ideas to rectify the systemic corruption of the electoral process. I'm sure the moneyed interests would probably find some other avenue, but it would be nice to make some serious reform efforts to strive for a truly transparent process. A few other ideas mentioned in this post.

http://www.city-data.com/forum/polit...l#post38379213
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Old 03-01-2015, 06:59 AM
 
Location: Subconscious Syncope, USA (Northeastern US)
2,365 posts, read 2,136,111 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ohio_peasant View Post
Proper ID establishes (at best) that the bearer is a citizen qualified to vote, according to the Constitution itself. It says nothing about good judgment or familiarity with the issues. As TheDusty points out in post #6, a knowledge-test as prerequisite for voting would indeed be unconstitutional. That can be resolved by amending the Constitution.

My personal opinion is that present voting-qualifications are both too narrow, and too broad. It seems to me that convicted felons shouldn't necessarily be disqualified from voting. Green Card holders (who reside in the US permanently, but are not yet citizens) ought, I think, to be allowed to vote. Thus the excessive narrowness. On the other hand, I'm not persuaded that the idea of universal one-person-one-vote has turned out to be a successful experiment. Without getting mired in a class-warfare diatribe, it seems to me that some proportionality or weighing of one's vote, in relation to "knowledge" or "competency" (whatever those mean) or "economic activity" would be a worthwhile revision.
You made me curious...if I go live in foreign country fulltime and permanently, but am not a citizen yet, and could always choose never to become one, should I be allowed to vote in that country? Does anyone know if any country outside the US would welcome that?

I think convicted felons should not be allowed to vote - even if they are a convicted felon from another country. The reason they werent allowed to vote was to give them a reason to not be felons to start with - you lose freedoms. Granted you need to be smart enough of a prospective criminal to know that when making that choice. Everyone knows being a felon is impressive on a street level. All the jailbirds want to walk with the felon - it feels safer to them.

It would behoove every citizen to familiarize themselves with the US Constitution - its in their best interest to do so, but it should not be required one recites it before being allowed to vote. Heck, some very intelligent people just dont do well on tests. Your citizenship should be really all you need along with ID. To require something like that would be like saying the thoughts and opinions of the functionally illiterate citizen dont count. Being underprivileged doesnt equal not smart, afterall.
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Old 03-01-2015, 07:36 AM
 
Location: Someplace Wonderful
5,177 posts, read 4,768,032 times
Reputation: 2587
Quote:
Originally Posted by jackmichigan View Post
YES. If a person believes that the Earth is only 6,000 years old...or that human influences aren't significant enough to alter life-supporting habitats on Earth or even the atmosphere, then--YES--they are clearly too stupid to vote intelligently.


(I broadened your question for you.)
Wow! I get it. Only people who subscribe to the liberal left agenda should be allowed to vote.

How about this, for an amendment to the first? Morons who dont embrace free speech should be denied free speech. You like that one?
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Old 03-01-2015, 07:41 AM
 
Location: Someplace Wonderful
5,177 posts, read 4,768,032 times
Reputation: 2587
Quote:
Originally Posted by Year2525 View Post
Before being allowed to vote? Since the favorite theme of the day are needs tests and qualifications to exercise rights, why not a qualification to vote?
One would hope that kids get some constitutional education as a part of senior year American History. I experienced that semester. Not that I remember anything from it

What I would really like to see is a test of understanding of the constitution for all elected so called representatives before they can be sworn in.

The stuff that dreams are made of ...
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Old 03-01-2015, 08:13 AM
 
8,540 posts, read 12,295,045 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chuckmann View Post
Wow! I get it. Only people who subscribe to the liberal left agenda should be allowed to vote.
Wow. Do you actually believe that if someone understands that the Earth is more than 6,000 years old, then they must be "liberal"? How foolish.

Besides, my post was made in jest. Even morons who lack basic science education should be allowed to vote. It's just unfortunate that they do!
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Old 03-01-2015, 08:35 AM
 
Location: Long Neck , DE
4,903 posts, read 4,189,894 times
Reputation: 8095
Quote:
Originally Posted by marlinfshr View Post
I think one needs to have an ID to actually vote, not a test. They have to register anyway so make them show an ID as well.

As far as a test, no. Unless the "test" is them being competent enough to actually get an ID and register to vote!
So many people now days do not want to vote making them take a test would eliminate more simply because they don't want to be bothered. It would be great if folks actually checked out candidates and issues before voting or even hopping on someone's bandwagon because of a great commercial.
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